/ / / Barbeque \ \ \

"Gracie, what's wrong? You came out with a sour look on your face." Danny said as he tucked the napkins out of the wind.

"I don't like Mrs McGarrett."

"What did she do?"

"She doesn't like you," Grace said just as the back door opened and Doris came out with Chin and Malia following her.

"Malia," Grace said beaming. "Hello. Can I give you a hug?"

Malia nodded. "I'm almost all healed."

Grace gave her a very gentle hug before waving her hello at Chin.

"Let's go down to the water," Malia said with a smile.

"I'll get you a blanket," Danny said.

"Are you sure you should go down there?" Chin asked. Malia smiled and kissed him on the cheek before pulling Grace down towards the water.

"Don't worry, Chin," Danny said when he came back. "Don't look at me like that either. I remember you giving me that same advice after Montegliano."

"Montegliano?" Doris asked.

"Guy who kidnapped Steve and I, he did a fair amount of damage. Steve was out of commission for a while. Surprisingly enough Steve isn't a very good patient."

Chin grinned. "Grace had him completely under control."

Danny laughed. "She is going to be a force to be reckoned with if she becomes a doctor."

Chin grabbed the blanket. "I can't wait."

"Or you know, you and Malia could have your own."

Chin laughed but didn't bother to say anything.

"I'm going to go in and help Steve, Doris. You can go down to the water if you like."

"About time," Doris said before she walked down to the water. Danny dropped his head and turned back into the house.

"Hey babe," Danny said and came to stand next to Steve.

Steve turned to him with flared nostrils and glared past Danny.

"What did she say? Grace came out looking mad and so do you."

"She, I set her straight."

Danny took the knife out of Steve's hand and turned him towards the table. "Tell me."

"She thinks you're taking advantage of me."

"As often as possible," Danny said.

Steve laughed and then frowned at him. "I told her what happened yesterday."

"You told her about us getting married?"

Steve shook his head. "I told her about the bomb since she was telling me that she doesn't think that you're the right person for me, she isn't listening."

Danny took a deep breath. "Okay. Well, we have a plan and it has cake, so we are going to ignore all of that and when she realises that you and I are utterly serious about this then she has two options, she can like it or she can decide not to, is she doesn't then you and I have a talk to her."

"Why are you so damned calm, you're never calm?"

Danny glared at him. "I am often calm. In this instance it is because I don't care what she thinks of me, you know me Steve. I get loud when things are important and I go quiet when things are…really important but what your mother thinks of me isn't either of those things. You are important to me so I will wait her out and I will not allow her to make me angry though if she upsets Grace again that will change." Danny shook his head.

"I find you being calm upsetting," Steve said before he pulled Danny in for a kiss.

"Lovely," Danny said but couldn't say anything else since the bell rang again. "Saved by the bell."

"I don't need to be saved from you Danny."

Danny smiled at him widely before turning for the door.

"Hey, Kono, Adam. Come in."

"Hey, Danny, have some wine," Kono said on the way in.

"Hi, Danny," Adam said looking around uncomfortably.

"Come in Adam, it' great that you're here, everyone's out the back."

Adam smiled and followed Kono out of the house. Danny was about to close the door when Max called out to him, a pretty brunette on his arm smiling shyly.

"Hello Max, is this Sabrina?"

"Yes. Sabrina, this is Danny, a member of the Five-0 taskforce that I work with."

"Hello Danny," she said with a smile. Danny clapped Max on the back as he passed but the medical examiner simply stared at him confused.

"Come on in, everyone's out the back down near the water. Would you like me to get you a chair?"

"I can do that," Max insisted and put a hand on Sabrina's back to lead her out of the house.

Steve came out to stand next to him. "Just Cath to come, everything's ready."

Danny slid his arm around Steve's waist. "When are you cooking?"

Steve shrugged. "As soon as Cath gets here, I invited everyone later than normal. Then we can tell everyone."

Danny nodded. "I best get out there instead of leaving our guests to fend for themselves."

Steve kissed him again. "I'll come down as soon as Cath arrives."

Danny walked down to the beach with an armful of beer. He handed them out and then gave water to the injured and Grace. Danny dropped onto the blanket next to Adam.

"Grace and Kono were in the water before I'd finished telling her I didn't mind."

"Grace is a terrible influence of everyone. If she can get into the water she will."

"Is Grace swimming?" Cath asked from behind him.

"Of course," Danny smiled. "Steve cooking?"

"He told me to tell you he doesn't need help and if you come up he'll burn the sausages."

Danny laughed.

"I think I might join them swimming." Cath said and toed off her shoes. "Anyone else?"

"I can't go beyond wadding," Malia said ignoring Chin's worried look. "But I can do that."

"Malia…" Chin started.

"Chin, either you come for a walk in the waves or you sit here and be quiet."

"Let's go," Chin said and kicked his shoes off.

Danny watched them all go. "How is your recovery coming Sabrina?"

"Good," she said with a smile. "They said I could start back at work next week. Only short shifts but I'm really looking forward to being able to get out of the house."

"I remembering being completely stir-crazy the last time I was shot."

"The last time?" Sabrina said worriedly.

Danny would have made a comment about it all being Steve's fault but Steve wasn't here and he couldn't be bothered disagreeing with Doris about it. "Occasional hazard of the job." Sabrina looked at Max and Daniel continued. "But only my job. I'm going to go up and help Steve." Danny stood up and walked the short distance back to the house.

"I told Cath not to let you come up here," Steve said.

"I didn't want you to be alone up here cooking, we're normally all up here. Grace is down in the water with Kono and Cath and I wanted to check on you."

Steve looked at him. "You're not watching her like a hawk?"

"You've taught her how to swim better than almost anyone I know."

"You don't need to keep me company." Steve said.

"Need any help?" Adam asked coming up to them.

"Nope, but you can grab us both a beer." Steve said. "And tell me how everything is going."

Danny nodded and turned around to head back down to the water, he could see Grace swimming around and walked down to the edge of the water.

"I love the beach," Malia said to him, Chin was looking with some fear between Malia and the waves.

"I'm just glad you're feeling better." Danny said.

"So am I," she said with a sigh. "My mum is finally gone so now I only have Chin watching me like I'm about to break."

"Cut him some slack," Danny said. "Remember that you doctors are the worst patients."

"That is a vicious lie," Malia said with a smirk.

Danny turned at Grace's squeal and she came running out of the water. She stopped next to him. "There was a school of fish."

"Out there?"

Grace nodded.

"About time to eat?" Kono called out.

"Bottomless pit," Danny said before he shook his head. "You going back in, Monkey?"

Grace shook her head. "Can I swim later?"

Danny huffed out a laugh. "Like I'd be able to keep you out of the water."

"I'll swim later then," Grace said. "When Steve can swim too."

"Alright, Monkey."

"We'll come too," Malia said and Danny could see Chin visibly relax. They waved Kono and Catherine back in as well and settled back with the rest of the party.

"Where is Adam?" Kono asked looking around.

"He is up helping Steve," Danny said watching Grace.

Everyone settled down and they chatted about anything that wasn't work for a while, everyone staying very carefully away from what had been happening this week and what had happened yesterday specifically. Danny watched Grace who chatted to Sabrina, talked to Max about her last visit to the water park and Kono about when they could next go surfing but she carefully avoided Doris who was sitting back and watching the group rather than participating.

Danny knew Grace was her own person, but twisted in with that was a fair amount of Rachel and himself. Rachel and Danny had always had one thing in common above all else, they were stubborn people and Grace was too in her own way. He knew that, unlike Rachel, Grace took after him in her devotion to the people she cared about. Rachel cared for people and she never set out to hurt them but she found it easy sometimes to forget that she had made promises. Grace was like him though, like his mother before him, when she loved someone and welcomed them into her life she looked after them. She cared for Steve and she hadn't liked hearing about his mother leaving, she had seen with the clarity that came with youth the fact that Doris coming back had hurt Steve, and now with that same understanding she had seen that Doris didn't like him either. Danny wasn't surprised that Grace didn't like Doris, he didn't like Doris but he was a little surprised at how much she seemed to be avoiding Doris. He was going to pull her inside and talk to her when Chin started telling a story about Steve and Danny arguing over paint colours while running through the streets chasing some teenager who'd stolen a woman's bag. Doris watched Chin carefully as he told the story and something kept Danny in his spot.

"Danny," Steve called down and Danny had no choice but to leave them to it.

"Steven, what can I do for you?" Danny asked when he came to stand next to him.

"How is everything going?" Steve asked nodding his head down towards the beach.

"Good."

"Should we cart everything down there or make everyone come up here?"

Danny looked down at the beach. "Here. We'll have a nice captive audience for the announcement and there will be no sand in my food."

"That's what I figured," Steve said.

"So you asked me up here to…"

Steve responded by kissing him.

"I'll go and get everything then," Danny said with another quick kiss before he went inside and grabbed everything else they needed. "I like this being lazy thing," Danny said when everything was on the table.

"You keep enjoying it," Steve said. "I cooked so you have to do the clean-up."

"I knew there would be a downside," Danny said.

"Here," Adam said handing Steve another beer. "Just try it."

"I like my Kona," Steve said but tried Adam's beer anyway. "Five minutes," Steve said to Danny.

"I shall collect the troops," Danny saluted and headed back down towards the water. The closer he got he could see that Grace was glaring at the woman sitting on the other side of the blanket. She had obviously stopped ignoring Doris now and while Danny completely agreed with the sentiment he and Rachel were raising her better than that.

"Grace," Danny said quietly sitting next to his daughter. "Stop glaring at Mrs McGarrett."

Grace nodded and looked to the ocean instead. She folded her arms and rested back against Danny's chest. "She said Steve would have been better off to have picked all the colours himself and they you wouldn't have had fights."

"Steve is ready for you guys," Danny said to the whole group but he kept an arm around Grace so she knew not to go anywhere. Danny smiled at Sabrina who watched him as they walked away.

"I don't like her," Grace said.

"I know monkey," Danny said with a sigh. "But she is Steve's mum so we're going to be polite to her."

Danny ignored the voice in his mind reminding him that he hadn't been particularly nice. Though, in all honesty he had been fairly polite; if he didn't love Steve so much he probably would have been downright rude to her. Danny tried to work out the right way to explain this to Grace.

"Mrs McGarrett doesn't realise yet how much we love Steve and while she shouldn't be rude to me." Danny had a sudden thought. "She wasn't rude to you was she?"

Grace shook her head.

"Well, you know that I don't think anyone should be rude to other people but I am going to be polite to Mrs McGarrett until she realises that we love Steve as much as she does. If she is rude to you I want you to tell me, and if she is rude about me again you tell me but maybe what we should do for the rest of the day is stay away from her like you stay away from mean people in the playground at school."

"She should be nice." Grace said folding her arms across her chest.

Danny smiled at his daughter and pulled her close. "She should be but she isn't at the moment and we can't make people do things so we're going to do the right thing."

"Is everything okay?" Steve asked walking towards them.

"We're just chatting about keeping our distance from people who say things we don't like."

"Are you going to tell your mum to be nice to Danny, Steve?"

"I already did, Grace." Steve said. "I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"That's okay, Steve," she stood up and gave him a hug. "I'm just going to do what Danno said."

"Okay, go and grab some food, Monkey." Grace nodded and ran towards the house.

"I'll talk to her now," Steve said.

"No," Danny shook his head and grabbed Steve's wrist. "She hasn't said anything to Grace but Grace is being very protective of us. Wait until after lunch and do it quietly but don't make a big deal out of it."

"Okay, still bizarrely calm."

"Determinedly." Danny said and dragged Steve up the beach to the house.

/ / / /

I know Danny isn't calm much but I really do think he'd try, it won't last. It really, really suits my plans for next chapter though.

Happy New Year, I'll update in the new year :)